Our experience for your audio book
The Audio books-creation has a very long tradition with well over one hundred titles. We support you in all aspects of Setting of the book to music. Thus we can offer you a competent complete service, starting with Text editingProject management, Speaker selection, over the entire recording process including Direction and production managementThis includes post-processing and adjustment to the target medium, such as CD or download.
Gladly we provide to you for this a favorable Complete offer at a fixed price.
Let us advise you in detail - for example by telephone on 030 - 61 70 28 70 or via our practical Request form.
If you are interested in the topic in more detail, please read on:
About audio books
Content:
What exactly is an audio book?
Text selection
Text editing
The speaker
The director
The Sound Engineer
Reworking
Reproduction
Selection of audio books produced by us
Even if most of you already know it: What is an audio book?
A friendly speaker always says in response:
„Großmutter liest vor auf CD“ (inzwischen meist mp3 oder Streaming 😉
This is also the difference between audio books and radio play out:
A radio play is the played version and interpretation of a literary text with direct speech, Noises and music. First a script has to be created from the book and then various roles have to be cast.
This is achieved among other things by more Spokespersonthe use of noise, and Music a considerable amount of work, which clearly exceeds that of an audio book (just like the costs).
An audio book is the (sometimes slightly edited) book that is read to the listener. Here too, sometimes a little music is added, but not to the same extent as in radio plays
The advantage of an audio book is that many people who simply lack the time to read do not have to do without literature. So the sales representative in the car can enjoy a book, just as the single person enjoys ironing shirts.
The audio book is therefore a very modern and intelligent form of literature
...even though the principle is already known from grandmother...
Text selection:
In the beginning was the (written) word.
With about 100,000 new book releases per year, the choice for an audio book conversion is not easy.
But not every book is suitable as an audio book. It must be suitable for the specific possibilities and limitations of the acoustic media.
In addition to content and form, this also includes the type Language. Although these aspects may be excellent in written form, they are not necessarily suitable for acoustic implementation.
Nevertheless, more and more types of literature are produced as audio books.
Our experience also helps books in the borderline area of experimental implementation of, for example, philosophical literature, non-fiction, and documentary topics.
The most important criterion is - as with everything - always the quality of the template, the speaker, the recording, and last but not least the graphic design - because the eye is always listening.
Text editing:
Even if not every book template is suitable as an audio book, it is no big problem to find numerous suitable templates for audio books thanks to the wealth of high-quality texts offered by the extensive programs of book publishers.
After checking the legal situation, it will be clarified whether the text has to be set up anew for the reading version. A novel with 400 pages, for example, can hardly be realised as an audio book in a 1:1 transmission, because that would be about 16 hours (or 12 CDs) of reading aloud: the listener would be pre-programmed for signs of fatigue, because in contrast to a written book, it is not the reader who sets the tempo, beat and tonality, but the speaker.
And so it is difficult to keep the tension arcs at such a length.
And here we come back to the selection of texts, because not every novel is suitable for a shortened reading version, for example, without losing its lustre and becoming expressionless or, conversely, new aspects being highlighted by the audio book translation.
However, when careful editing is fundamentally necessary and possible, the contemporary authors always coordinate their editing with the writers or their editors. By the way, this coordination often continues right up to the actual production, where the focus is on expression and pronunciation.
The speaker:
The next important step in the production of an audio book is the selection of the narrator. Very few authors are able to read so that it is fun to listen, because being able to write well does not automatically mean being able to read well.
And reading aloud requires skill. A good speaker is therefore irreplaceable.
But not every text is suitable for every speaker, no matter how good: For one thing, the voice of the actor or actress must match the tone of the text. But even more important is that the speaker finds an access to the text, he or she has to open it up emotionally and intellectually in order to be able to convey it to the listeners in an interpretative way - just with his or her voice. Speaking audio books is the supreme discipline for speakers.
The director:
But not only one speaker is needed for the production of an audio book. Before the recording, the Directed by occupied. Even the director - in our company these are always qualified people who have accompanied many audio books - must of course have penetrated the text just as well as the interpreters, because the director's task is primarily to clear up any linguistic weaknesses or interpretations that were not meant by the author by providing support and sensitive attention to the speaker and to give the presentation the necessary polish.
In the case of contemporary authors, he is also responsible for contact with the author in order to eliminate any ambiguities in the linguistic interpretation of a text.
Together with our sound engineer, the director also pays attention to every slip of the tongue.
It also assists the sound engineer in detecting kissing, unwanted "breathing" or mumbling in the speaker's stomach.
Often a native speaker is present at certain readings of books set in faraway countries, who pays attention to the correct pronunciation of certain words and proper names.
The sound engineer:
Our task as sound engineers is to bring the voice of the speaker in all its fullness and all its nuances as directly and cleanly as possible onto the "tape".
We also pay special attention to the already mentioned background noises, such as kissing, unwanted "breathing" etc.
Our sound engineers experienced in audio book production also support the director in the realisation of certain forms of expression and also advise him or her on the technical possibilities for the realisation of special requests for the interpretation of the audio book.
Post-processing:
Once the recording is in the "box" (usually this takes several days), the editing process continues with the cut, during which the complete recording is heard and all wrong inserts and unwanted background noise are removed.
This is our specialty: You will rarely find audio book productions on the German market for audio books that are as clean and yet lively as those that have been created and edited by us. Our strength lies on the one hand in our ability to listen very analytically, on the other hand in the care with which we carry out the post-production.
After editing, you then define where the page separation should take place for the CD version and set the transitions and play points (tracks) for the CDs.
This cleaned-up read version is finally listened to again for possible errors.
Duplication for CD production:
The master, too, is externally checked once again in terms of content and technology before the copy shop, where the films for covers and booklets have been delivered in the meantime, begins with the duplication.
Before the finished audio books are delivered, they are checked there once again for their technical quality.
However, the use of audio books is declining in favour of download versions.
Audio book examples:
Here you will find a selection of audio books which were produced by us.
audio books - audio book production - Wordvoice GmbH
